sami elbaz
New member
Hey everyone,
I'm reaching out to you for advice on a professional dilemma I'm currently facing. I'm 51 years old, in a pretty senior position at a multinational company, and I'm looking for a new direction for my career. I'm very experienced in the field of VLSI, and I worked in the Wireless group for 7 years before moving to the CPU division. I worked hard there, even on weekends, and although I learned a lot, my direct manager treated me like a student—the truth is, I learned a lot there and there's still a lot to learn. The main work there was fixing bugs, adding features, and maintaining RTL code. There was tough competition over which features to work on and who would do what. I didn't fight for them and was given grunt work while others got more interesting tasks. I also wasn't independent enough there because it takes a lot of time to get acclimated. They told me you need to be there for at least 5 years to understand what's going on. I decided to leave, and my boss there begged me to stay, but I left the division and went back to the Wireless group.
Here, too, for a year, they gave me grunt work, mostly GLS. I asked for development and got upset, so my boss gave me a chance to work with an algorithm expert to write RTL and develop something big, but I don't really understand the algorithms. I just implement them in RTL. It's interesting stuff, but unfortunately, I don't understand anything. It feels like a waste of time. I do RTL synthesis here and have also done backend for a few blocks. My boss in Wireless announced he was moving to a new role but staying in the division, and he dumped all the work he was responsible for on me—fast blocks with low-level RTL. Before he gave me this work that no one wants to do, he gave me a big RTL project. But then, a colleague on my team came and took that work from me, and my boss gave me the grunt work instead. He broke up our two-person team and transferred us to another manager. It seems I won't be doing big RTL blocks anymore because I'll be busy maintaining the small ones. My new boss in the Wireless division doesn't understand my work, and I'm doing grunt work. Although I was promoted to a high rank in Wireless, I'm not sure if I should stay here. Also, I don't think this division is the most stable. There have been layoffs, and a lot of people are leaving. The backend group has been emptied of people. The turnover here is crazy, there's a lack of manpower, and they're throwing a lot of tasks at me.
Despite all this, I don't work as hard here as I did in the CPU division because I know the whole work environment, I'm independent, and the work flows for me. I'm not dependent on people like I was in the CPU division. But the place is not stable, and it seems to me that what I'm developing is at a low level and I think I'm going backward. Even when they give me something big (I don't believe they will anymore because I'll be busy with maintenance on the small blocks), I don't understand the algorithm. I don't think it's a good thing to develop without understanding.
Recently, the boss I had in the CPU division offered me the chance to come back. I think he appreciates me, but I'm not entirely sure because everyone there is younger, sharper, and cheaper than me. I'm afraid to go back to a place I've been to before. I'm afraid I'll do grunt work again. I don't know how long I'll last there, but the CPU division is a very stable place and was not affected by the layoffs.
In addition, I'm afraid that my experience in RTL won't be relevant in the future and that I'll have to switch to BE, a field that interests me less. I'm not sure if I should do that because BE can also involve grunt work.
I'm also worried about my age. I'm afraid that if I leave the company, it will be difficult for me to find a job because of my age and high salary. And even if I find one, it will be difficult for me to prove myself in interviews. I've been on interviews at 5 companies and haven't gotten an offer, even though I felt the interviews went well.
My questions for you are:
I'm reaching out to you for advice on a professional dilemma I'm currently facing. I'm 51 years old, in a pretty senior position at a multinational company, and I'm looking for a new direction for my career. I'm very experienced in the field of VLSI, and I worked in the Wireless group for 7 years before moving to the CPU division. I worked hard there, even on weekends, and although I learned a lot, my direct manager treated me like a student—the truth is, I learned a lot there and there's still a lot to learn. The main work there was fixing bugs, adding features, and maintaining RTL code. There was tough competition over which features to work on and who would do what. I didn't fight for them and was given grunt work while others got more interesting tasks. I also wasn't independent enough there because it takes a lot of time to get acclimated. They told me you need to be there for at least 5 years to understand what's going on. I decided to leave, and my boss there begged me to stay, but I left the division and went back to the Wireless group.
Here, too, for a year, they gave me grunt work, mostly GLS. I asked for development and got upset, so my boss gave me a chance to work with an algorithm expert to write RTL and develop something big, but I don't really understand the algorithms. I just implement them in RTL. It's interesting stuff, but unfortunately, I don't understand anything. It feels like a waste of time. I do RTL synthesis here and have also done backend for a few blocks. My boss in Wireless announced he was moving to a new role but staying in the division, and he dumped all the work he was responsible for on me—fast blocks with low-level RTL. Before he gave me this work that no one wants to do, he gave me a big RTL project. But then, a colleague on my team came and took that work from me, and my boss gave me the grunt work instead. He broke up our two-person team and transferred us to another manager. It seems I won't be doing big RTL blocks anymore because I'll be busy maintaining the small ones. My new boss in the Wireless division doesn't understand my work, and I'm doing grunt work. Although I was promoted to a high rank in Wireless, I'm not sure if I should stay here. Also, I don't think this division is the most stable. There have been layoffs, and a lot of people are leaving. The backend group has been emptied of people. The turnover here is crazy, there's a lack of manpower, and they're throwing a lot of tasks at me.
Despite all this, I don't work as hard here as I did in the CPU division because I know the whole work environment, I'm independent, and the work flows for me. I'm not dependent on people like I was in the CPU division. But the place is not stable, and it seems to me that what I'm developing is at a low level and I think I'm going backward. Even when they give me something big (I don't believe they will anymore because I'll be busy with maintenance on the small blocks), I don't understand the algorithm. I don't think it's a good thing to develop without understanding.
Recently, the boss I had in the CPU division offered me the chance to come back. I think he appreciates me, but I'm not entirely sure because everyone there is younger, sharper, and cheaper than me. I'm afraid to go back to a place I've been to before. I'm afraid I'll do grunt work again. I don't know how long I'll last there, but the CPU division is a very stable place and was not affected by the layoffs.
In addition, I'm afraid that my experience in RTL won't be relevant in the future and that I'll have to switch to BE, a field that interests me less. I'm not sure if I should do that because BE can also involve grunt work.
I'm also worried about my age. I'm afraid that if I leave the company, it will be difficult for me to find a job because of my age and high salary. And even if I find one, it will be difficult for me to prove myself in interviews. I've been on interviews at 5 companies and haven't gotten an offer, even though I felt the interviews went well.
My questions for you are:
- Is it right to leave a less stable organization with a key position (Wireless) for a very stable organization that is the core of the company, where I'll be a "cog in the machine"?
- What should I focus on for the long term, RTL or BE? What's more relevant in the age of AI?
- Would you recommend I return to the CPU division even though the past there was difficult? The CPU division is the core of the company, but they don't do new development there—they only improve what already exists by adding features, and there's a lot of grunt work and maintenance. But there's a lot to learn there in terms of microarchitecture. Only those who stand out get that, and I'm an introverted person.